Another week has flown by in Buckhannon!

Hello everyone! Another week down here in Buckhannon! Time is moving too fast. I'm going to miss it here in a couple weeks. ​

Remember how I said last week was a slow one? Yeah. This week was even slower. The Lord is trying to teach Elder Sawyer and I something with this week, and we're working on trying to figure out what. Our biggest problem was pretty much every appointment to teach investigators fell through today. It really sucks when that happens. Your heart drops, you put your head down and just sigh. Luckily, most of our appointments rescheduled for this week, and most people feel too guilty to reschedule again. They'll feel The Spirit eventually!

We had a really fun p-day last week! It was Sister Shreeve's birthday, so we decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings! Annnnnd they talked me into the Hot Wing challenge. Why did I do it? No idea. I couldn't eat all 12. In my defense, I had a burger right before so I was really full. My appetite hasn't been as big since I've been on my mission. I don't really know what's wrong with me. It really didn't even burn until after I stopped eating. Then it burned. A lot. I got really dizzy and all flushed apparently. Hot stuff does weird things to you.

Tuesday was a great day! We had the best lesson I've ever experienced thus far on my mission that day. Her name is D!, and she has some heavy reservations on The Bible and is having a really hard time believing in God and Jesus Christ. In the lesson, we testified of The Atonement of Jesus Christ. She was heavily emotional throughout too. She wants to know so bad, but is afraid that she won’t get an answer. All we can do is pray and encourage her. You can pray for her too. Please pray for her!

The rest of the week, as mentioned before, was slow. All other appointments fell through.  We did have a great experience on Saturday! We were invited to go way up into The Boonies and help some of The Chapman family make Molasses (That may have been one of the most West Virginian things I've ever written)! That was a great experience. Elder Sawyer and I were on straining duty. After they crush the cane stalks and get the juice, we had to strain it so no dirt gets in to the pure juice. After that, they boil it for 12+ hours and then it turns into gingerbre- I mean Molasses! (Lets be honest, nobody uses it except for gingerbread).

While we were there, I got to talk to Goldie, the matriarch of The Chapman clan. She has 13 kids, 63 grandkids, 100+ great grand kids, and 7 great great grand kids. I grabbed a piece of paper and tried my hardest to figure out everybody. I got 13/13 kids, 36/63 grandkids, and 47/100+ great grandkids, and 1/7 great great grandkids. I didn't do too bad, did I? That's pretty good I think! Maybe I spend too much time with The Chapmans. :)

Last thing, I had a chance to give a great sister in the ward a blessing yesterday. I don't remember a whole lot of what I felt prompted to say (That's kind of how they work, haha), but I do remember that I talked about how we can't see our future opportunities and blessings, but God can. Sometimes, all we can see is how scary or sad or frustrating the event facing us is going to be. But always remember that you have someone watching you, who can see the great things that come from trials, even if we can't.

I love you all! Keep praying for me, keep writing and I will talk to you all next week.

Love,

Brax

There are at least a dozen "First Churches" around these parts.

Yea, West Virginia is beautiful

A W.V. sunset :)

Emma sent me a card! Thank you Emmers!!!

Emmers! This is Sadie. I took this picture for you!

This one too!

Elder Sawyer is a mixin that molasses!

Two adorable missionaries. :)

Fall is here!

Hello everyone! Another week gone by! This week has been a fun one!

First off, let me say THANK YOU to all those who wished me a happy birthday! :D I had a great birthday this year. Elder Sawyer and I had some fun making cakes out of twinkies, frosting and such and we had a great lesson that night with the S. family! We were able to talk with them for a while about how there is a reason that we, as missionaries, were sent to them. There is a reason that we are there. It was great, we shared a lot of experiences and thoughts.

Later that night, the Chapman family got me an Ice Cream Oreo cake for my birthday! Such a good family! It made me really happy to know that I've had a big enough impact on them that they care about me so much.

We have been finding a lot this past week. We found a really cool family last Sunday, that we were able to go see again on Saturday! We had a great lesson with them. Resolved some concerns, and scheduled a return appointment! Elder Sawyer and I are ready to prepare them for baptism! We've been studying and are super excited about it.

We also picked up a new investigator named D! Elder Fielding and I had been stopping by for the past couple months, but we could never break the barrier. Finally, when Elder Sawyer and I went over, we just decided to teach them. The Mom, L., still has a lot of concerns. She is still very shaky on being taught, but we are working with her. Her daughter D. sat and talked with us for a while though, and we were able to resolve a lot of her concerns and teach her the restoration. Going back on Tuesday!

There is not much else to report! This week was a slower one in the realm of teaching. We have scheduled a lot of return appointments with people who actually seem pretty interested, so that is always nice! We are going to be seeing them at various times throughout the week. Be praying for them and for us! We need your prayers, and we know that they are heard.

We had a family history fair at the church on Saturday, to which the missionaries were invited. After listening to a few presentations, I was intrigued by how cool it sounds now. I know a lot of people's family history is already done, especially you guys in Utah who have been in the church for the past 5 generations, get into indexing! The Spirit of Elijah will help you no matter what you are doing, as long as you are actively trying! Family History is pretty cool! Anyway, that was a random thought, haha.

I love you all! Thank you so much for all your prayers in our behalf! I know that they are heard, and I know that they are answered!

Keep writing! Keep Praying!

Love,

Brax

The epic Twinkie cake!

Elder Sawyer decorated my desk!

The Chapman Family got me a cake!!!

Part of the Chapman family. I love this family!

Selfie for you Mom!

Don't be jealous mom. Fall just started... :)

Happy Birthday to me from Elder Sawyer!

Changes!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week!

Transfers were last week, as you all know! Elder Fielding has left to be a Zone Leader again and Elder Sawyer is here with me in Buckhannon! He is a fun guy. He's from Farr West, Utah and has been out on his mission 6 months! He's excited to be here and to learn the area! We are going to have lots of fun together.

This past week has been really slow. We haven't seen hardly anybody! We did have the opportunity to help move The N. family on Saturday. That was good, a lot of people were there, so Elder Sawyer was able to introduce himself to some members of the ward. Our area is just so big we don't get the chance to see a lot of members.

We didn't have church yesterday! Ahh! 14 days without renewing my covenants! I'm not gonna make it! We had Stake Conference this past week! It was really awesome! There were a lot of fantastic speakers. I took a lot of notes. President and Sister Salisbury came up to speak at both the Saturday and Sunday sessions of conference! It was great to be able to hear from them. President Salisbury gave a great talk on Sunday. He said that when his kids were young, he came up with an expanded version of "Search, Ponder and Pray." He says, "Search, Ponder, Think, Pray, Do, Become." I really liked that. It's on my study desk. It reminds me that just reading isn't enough. We need to let the principles we find change and govern our lives to make us better disciples of Christ.

Not a whole lot to talk about this week. Next week we should have a lot to talk about! We have some awesome lessons lined up this next week.

Last thing, big shout out to my little cousin Mason who has made the decision to get baptized on October 11th! Super proud of you buddy!

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers in my behalf. They are definitely felt. Keep sending them my way! Write when you can!

Love, Brax

Beautiful West Virginia

My scenery :)

Elder Sawyer and I at transfers.

Selfie - September 15. My mom thinks I need a haircut. :)

The Buckhannon Elders and Sisters before transfers.

 

Transfers and the End of an Era

Hello everybody! I'm glad this week has an extra day, because not a lot happened. Well, that isn't totally true, a lot happened, but nothing super exciting to report (until later in the week).

Wednesday was an interesting day. It was supposed to be awesome! We had lessons with L, A, N and her sister A, and K and J. 4 lessons! Crazy sauce! So, we first go with Brother Linger to L's house. Oh, she has the flu. :( #1. Next, we are eating lunch. A. texts us. She's in MorganTown (Home of WVU for you sports people) for the afternoon. #2. Oh well! Just about to leave for N & A. Her dad is in the hospital. :((( #3. K & J! We are doing the stop smoking workshop with them! They expressed a lot of interest in wanting to do it, so we did! They didn't make it very far. :( 45 minutes I think after we left. I'm starting to lose faith in that program. Oh well though! Such is missionary life, right? Roll with the punches!

Thursday had a pretty cool experience. We were going to see a former investigator we stop by and talk to every once in a while named DC. He had a stroke a few months ago, so he really can't progress anymore, but he likes our company. As we get there, we meet his lawn care person, C, and start talking to him. We talked to him for a really long time, like 45 minutes or something crazy like that. He was kind of interested, kind of not. He was the first person I ever met that didn't believe in the New Testament. I'm not sure how you can believe in the Old Testament and NOT the New, but whatever. The reason it was cool was just to hear some big concerns other than polygamy, Native Americans, gold plates, and stuff like that. We actually got to answer questions! Well, Elder Fielding got to answer questions anyway. The whole conversation was on the bible, which is Elder Fielding's area of expertise.

Friday we had Zone Meeting. It was pretty cool to see the other missionaries in the zone that we don't see a lot. We found out that the Buckhannon District (Buckhannon Elders, Buckhannon Sisters, Elkins Elders, Elkins Sisters, Philippi Senior) is the most effective District in the mission! How cool is that?

After Zone Meeting, The amazing C family texted us and told us to come over so we can talk to this family friend of theirs named JD. He wasn't really interested at all, until we mentioned the stop smoking workshop to him. That got him pretty intrigued. We gave him our phone number, and he told us he would call and invite us to dinner sometime. If that works out that will be pretty awesome.

Saturday was fun! We cut wood with Brother Loudin all morning. He has a wood furnace that heats his house, so he needs a lot of wood. After that though, we went over to see A. We had an awesome conversation about what exactly the celestial kingdom is, and how we will someday we like Heavenly Father. She was confused for most of it, but at the end she understood. It was great! While we were teaching though, we got a call from President Salisbury. Surprise! Elder Fielding is going to be a Zone Leader! Isn't that awesome? He's pretty humble about it, but it’s still pretty cool. So, I am staying in Buckhannon. Elder Fielding has been packing the last couple days, and it's kind of weird. The house is starting to feel so barren and empty.

Anyway, Sunday started the goodbyes. He said good bye to A & R, even though we are seeing them today to pick up pepperoni rolls. He said good-bye to amazing Family C, even though we are seeing them today to pick up a fanny pack that their daughter is making for Elder Fielding (he's gonna rock it). We ended the night with the wonderful L family. He said goodbye to them. We both really love that family a lot. I can tell he is going to miss them.

I hope you all had a fantastic week! I will see you all next week with a new companion by my side! That will be pretty cool! Keep writing!!! Keep praying!!! Love you all!

Elder Moffett and I

A full moon over West Virginia

Sunset in the Hollars

The Buckhannon District at Zone Meeting

Crazy photo... sort of...

The Lord brings us together, even from Khon Kaen, Thailand to Buckhannon, WV

Hello everybody!

I'm on really slow computers today at the Family History Library because the city library is closed. Monday holidays are weird. 

Amazing story of the week:

So a lady in our ward named Sister G called us this morning during studies. She's Thai, by the way. She said "I got a skype message from my brother this morning in Khon Kaen who said there's a missionary named Elder Johnson in his branch who knows (and loves) an Elder Johnson serving in her ward in Buckhannon."!!!!! Isn’t that amazing!  Of all the places we could be in the world, Ryan and I are connected by a brother and sister who joined the Church. One in Thailand and one in Buckhannon, WV. Amazing!!! So, I technically got to talk to Ryan this morning, because I talked to Sister G, who's talking to her brother, who's talking to Ryan. By extension. :) ​

Our week.

Lets see... Monday we went fishing again! Buckhannon isn't great for P-day activities. We did go with the Elkins Elders though, so that was pretty fun. They are some good guys. 

Tuesday! We had a really cool lesson with a girl named Ch. on her porch. Elder Ostler (our Zone Leader) and I tracted into her on exchanges a couple weeks ago, and she was actually pretty interested. We talked to her for 45 minutes on Tuesday and just answered all of her questions. It was pretty awesome!

Wednesday we teamed-up with a member (which just means he goes with us to appointments) named Brother L. He's a sherrif's deputy, and he's freaking awesome. We taught a girl named LP. with him.  She didn't have too long to talk, so we set up a return appointment for Sunday.

Thursday was really cool. In the morning we had to drive to Elkins so Elder Fielding (our district leader) could interview the Elkins Elder's investigator Sister S. The interview went great and she was baptized yesterday! She is the mother of A., our investigator. We are hoping that by her mom getting baptized and her dad who is already a member going back to church again, she will want to do everything she can. She already wants to be baptized, we just need to keep working with her. 

That night though was also awesome! We went with Brother H to his sister and brother in laws house, K. (not a member) and Je. (less active). K. wasn't there, but we had a great conversation with Je., and she revealed to us that she wants to quit smoking! So, as is natural, SUPER PLUG FOR LDS STOP SMOKING WORKSHOP. She got really excited when we told her that it will only take 7 days to quit, and apparently she posted on Facebook about how excited she is to be quitting smoking finally through a "new program." So... WOOT!

The rest of the week was pretty slow. We almost died on Saturday (ok, not really). It got up to 93 degrees, and we had to walk around ALL DAY because we were out of miles on our car. After walking for a while, we stopped at Hardee's (Carl's Jr) for like 15 minutes drinking powerade. I was really sweaty. Poor me. :)

Sunday was awesome! Sundays are always awesome. The Sacrament is obviously the best part. But after church went to our return appointment with LP! It was freaking AMAZING! She is on date to be baptized October 12. She almost started crying when we told her that in temples she can be sealed for eternity to her family. Her family is by far the most important thing to her. She's awesome, and we're really excited about her. We're seeing her again this Thursday.

That was my week. Hope you all had a great week too!

Keep praying for me. I love all of you! Keep writing! Talk to you all next week!​

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson